Appellate Litigation

Epsten Grinnell & Howell APC, as a community association industry leader, has a thriving appellate practice. As a full service firm providing a full range of services to our community association clients (from transactional issues impacting the operations and governance of an association to the unique issues impacting community associations in litigation), our appellate attorneys have taken on some of the most challenging legal issues impacting community associations — in particular including the attorney-client privilege, issues involving the Open Meeting Act, the association’s right to a jury trial in certain types of disputes, the business judgment rule as it applies to the unique corporate context of a homeowners association, and more.

Our appellate litigation group works closely with our association transactional and civil litigation attorneys, providing our appellate attorneys unparalleled insight, resources, and experience critical to successful representation of a community association in an appellate matter. Our firm’s attorneys have extensive experience arguing cases in California state and federal courts.

We provide our clients a wide range of appellate assistance, including work at the trial level to frame legal arguments for appeal, particularly on case-dispositive and post-judgment motions, drafting extraordinary writ petitions, strategic analysis of when and where to pursue further review, amicus curiae briefs affecting the community association industry in general, and, of course, briefs and oral argument in appellate courts. We are frequently retained by outside counsel after trial to bring an appeal and often work with trial counsel. We actively monitor appellate developments relevant to our clients’ industries to alert them to the potential effect of pending cases and forthcoming rulings.